Multiple Offers and $40k Over Asking Price

[Editor's Note: want to see what happend to this house? See, Fern Hill Flip]

Where: 2641 Kipling, in St. Louis Park's Fern Hill neighborhood

What: 3 BR/2 BA; 1,678 FSF

Asking Price: $165k

Sold Price: $205k

Days on Market: 3

Closed: 3/9/09

Forty thousand over asking price??

That isn't supposed to happen in a market flooded with inventory, and specifically, bank-owned foreclosures like this one. And yet, that's exactly what happened here.

I profiled this home one month ago when it went pending after less than 3 days on the market ("What's Selling? Fern Hill Foreclosure"). At the time, I speculated that it went in multiple offers, and that the ultimate selling price would be over the asking price -- perhaps well over.

Good call (if I say so myself).

One of the biggest misconceptions in today's market is that, no matter where a house is priced, it will ultimately sell for a big discount from that price.

Sellers who subscribe to that mindset invariably pad their asking price -- and then wonder why they aren't selling.

Buyers who subscribe to that mindset miss out on a lot of great deals (and waste a lot of time and energy writing unrealistically low offers).